Primary Foods

There comes a time in everyone’s life when you must face the truth. You’ve got to take a good hard look at yourself and reevaluate who and where you are and why. Being honest with yourself can bring about huge change for the better or can cause you to recoil. It can be an arduous journey, but can free you up to rebuild your physical and mental bodies. Resolving Primary food issues can be a source of fear, worry, doubt and pain. But to walk through the fire is to become reborn in ways never known. Primary food is the ultimate self-nourishing and if in balance will support healthy eating habits curb cravings and emotional eating patterns. It can be the key to your awakening and progression. Ordinary food is what you put in your mouth for nourishment. Primary food is emotional nourishment, the primary importance in your life.

Primary foods are your personal relationships, spiritual practices, physical exercise, and career. Most of our waking time is spent running from, immersed in, stressed out about, or in some way concentrated on these things. The question is, are these areas providing you strength or are they draining the life right out of you? If these elements are out of whack then they are most likely affecting your efforts to eat well and maintain healthy lifestyle.

I usually talk about whole foods and how you can prepare a quick and healthy recipe. But this week I’m having my own challenges, and they can’t be fixed by whole foods. No matter how healthy the meal, the imbalance of my primary food will not only take center stage, but hinder my efforts eat a good meal. You can bet if I’m really stressed out, I’m reaching for the coffee and the sugar!

I am neither a physiologist nor a board certified blah blah blah, but I think this concept is something we can all agree on. Have you ever had a relationship so draining it caused you to lose sleep or become depressed?

A job so stressful, it caused ulcers and headaches? Maybe you forgot you lived directly across from the beach and forgot to watch the sunsets because you were caught up in some superficial drama? But darn tootin’ your diet was right on track. So why couldn’t you sleep? Why were you having trouble digesting?

What was with all the break outs and hearts palpitations? Hmm? We are not only fed by the food in our lives, but also by the energy. Could it have been the completely draining relationship, the fight with your spouse, the fact that you forgot to give yourself a bit of quiet time and your mind was racing a million miles an hour? Or was it that you were living in complete fear and worrying about the next 24 hours and the next 24 years!

Do you remember the times when you were happiest? Maybe you were in a healthy and loving relationship, or you felt at peace with your job, or you spent time listening to your heart’s needs, or maybe you were exercising regularly, giving our body the love it deserved, and eating whole foods and full of energy. Sometimes we veer off track and get distracted, things fall out of sync and we forget what it was like, sometimes for months and sometimes for years. Then one day you look up and wonder what happened? Where did YOU go? Where are YOU now? How the heck are you gonna get YOU back? Well, I can see you. You were right there all along!

As humans we hunger for play, touch, romance, intimacy, love, achievement, success, self-expression, excitement, and spirituality. All of these elements are essential forms of nourishment. How we incorporate them determines how enjoyable and worthwhile our lives feel.

There are small steps we can take to uplift our lives. Small changes yield big results, a little life recipe that’s sweeter than any sugar and stronger than any caffeine.

Small changes that bring about big results.

Relationships: having healthy relationships that support you

Evaluate the people in your life. Are they uplifting and inspiring you?

Love deep, committed and intimate connections

Honor the love and relationships in your love and only except which is doing the same for you.

Work: Find work you love or a way to love the work you have

Try to find contentment and except your job or find the courage to change it!

Movement: physical activity that you enjoy and doing it regularly

MOVE YOUR BODY!
Start with a 10 minute walk!

Breathing: practicing ways to bring oxygen and calm into your body

Spend some quiet time with yourself!

Enjoy the sunset, close your eyes and breathe!

Laughter: the healing sound of joy

Man does a good laugh feel good! HA!

Creativity: express what makes you uniquely you Cook, Draw, write, craft…….do something you like to do to foster creativity.

Spirituality: honor your relationship to God (by whatever name you choose) and to the spirit part of yourself

OM, Shalom, Amen, hug a tree, and so on………

Purpose: a way of being in the world that transcends living just for your self
Help someone in need, however you feel appropriate.

Listen to someone who needs to talk, volunteer, or donate your time in someway

Adventure: explore, get dirty, learn, grow, leap forward

Build a sandcastle; take a class,

DANCE, zip line!

EATING: nourish and energize your body and mind with whole foods!

Enjoy the delicious, fresh and local food Vallarta offers. Make your own meals!


FIND YOUR JOY
through PRIMARY FOODs!

Integrative Nutrition teaches a holistic approach to nourishment and focuses on whole foods as well as Primary Foods; your relationships, spirituality, exercise and career. As a student, I learned to reject culinary dogma, the status quo, and standard medical doctrine. I learned I could help people discover themselves and a healthier way of life, not by providing answers but by posing questions. Ultimately the student, based on their own intuition, would find their own answers and their own way.
www.integrativenutrition.com

Cacao WOW

It makes a great truffle. My guests are always amazed by the flavor combination I use and generally freak out after dinner and beg me for the recipe. I am not exaggerating, it happens every time, like clockwork. 

They say it reminds them of the film Like Water for Chocolate. This is obviously a huge compliment as I put lots of love, intuition and hard work into the food I prepare. I’m happy to know I’m giving my guests something yummy as well as super nutritious. For the truffles, I use a Mexican bittersweet chocolate and chipotle chiles. The coating is a mixture of raw crushed cacao beans, Mexican cinnamon, coco powder, and organic cane sugar. I serve them in pairs and they’re accompanied by an orange quarter. Simple but delicious, I think the emotional reaction stems from the crushed cacao bean coating, because it’s got this amazingly sweet bitterness which works so well with the dark chocolate chipotle. It’s a culinary high. The blood starts pumping from the chile’s subtle heat and then the endorphins kick in and the skin starts to tingle. The euphoria from the chocolate and cacao sneak up on you and before you know it, you’re wide awake! It’s like heaven. THANK YOU CACAO aka Chocolate.

People who don’t like chocolate are not to be trusted. They obviously have fundamental issues with pleasure!

The next time you’re at the market, buy a handful of cacao beans and try them for yourselves. Just a few will do as they are really powerful. Creamy, bitter, sweet and so damn good and packed with concentrated nutrients which classify them as a super-food. Cacao IS chocolate. You can crush cacao into your granola, or add to a smoothie with banana and fresh coconut, crush on top of cookies or brownies before baking, eat them as is, or of course you can make my truffle recipe.

Cacao is botanically known as “Theobroma cacao”. The beans and nibs, the raw materials for making chocolate, are high in flavonoids and contain more antioxidants than most fruits and just as much as a glass of red wine. They are known to lower cholesterol and relieve depression.

In fact, the whole cacao fruit was used medicinally as well as recreationally among the Maya, Olmec and Aztecs, and was spread from there to Europe after the Spanish conquest. The Mayans consumed cacao as an aphrodisiac, energetic and digestive. Montezuma was said to have drank copious amounts of this cacao beverage for these reasons exactly.

The Aztecs not only associated cacao with the fertility goddess but also used it as currency. Sex and money….valuable stuff. There are many amazing stories of cacao in the history of Mesoamerica.

From the 16th through the 20th centuries, medical texts reported over 100 medicinal uses of cacao. Most commonly, the uses stimulate the nervous system and improve digestion and elimination, and heart health.

- Dark chocolate, which contains more cacao and less fats and sugars, can positively benefit the cholesterol profile

- Cacao provides the same amount of antioxidant polyphenols as a glass of red wine

- Cacao stimulates the production of natural antidepressants in the body, as well as containing its own stimulants, theophylline and caffeine

- Cacao beans are rich in magnesium, calcium, iron, zinc, copper, manganese and potassium. They’re also a good source of vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, C, E and pantothenic acid - Most of these nutrients are lost during the commercial chocolate making process. Health practitioners recommend that anyone interested in eating cacao for its health benefits use raw, unprocessed cacao beans and nibs rather than processed chocolate.

Constituents are Caffeine, flavonoids, phenylethylalamine, anandamide, magnesium, sulfur, oleic acid, theobromine, and tryptophan. Cacao beans and nibs contain more flavonoid antioxidants than most other vegetables and fruits and up to four times as much concentrated antioxidant as green tea.

Cacao stimulates the production of serotonin and endorphins, and contains phenylethylalamine, a chemical that elevates the mood and help increase focus. Cacao MAKES YOU HAPPY!

Bittersweet Cacao Truffles

12 oz Bittersweet Chocolate

¼ cup Almond or Rice Milk

The Chipotle JUICE from one small can of chipotles

If you’d like a spicier truffle, add the juice from two cans.

Save the chipotles for a salsa or later in the week.

Truffle Coating

½ cup of crushed cacao beans (use your coffee grinder)

1 cup organic cane sugar

1 heaping tablespoons of cinnamon

½ cup of coco powder

Mix together. Set aside until ready to coat truffles.

For truffles:

Melt chocolate with milk in a double boiler until smooth and creamy.

Add chipotle JUICE ONLY. Combine thoroughly and chill in the fridge until chocolate has a hardened but is still malleable.

Use a melon baller, coffee spoon, or small scooper to form small balls of chocolate. You will need to use your hands to

roll a well formed truffle ball. Toss in cacao sugar mixture to coat.

EAT! Have a nice slice of orange ready. They work really well together.

Makes about 15 truffles.

Provecho.